Talking About the Before-Term Elections

On the 15th of December 2004, before becoming President, Traian Basescu suggested the idea of before-term elections in case a Government of the J.T. (Justice and Truth) Alliance wouldn’t have received the motion of confidence from the Parliament. "If there are no solutions, we go back to the people". This idea became the leitmotiv of this Government. Yesterday, it has been decided that it should become a fact.

The Government has been formed, the Parliament gave the motion of confidence, but the President didn’t abandon the idea of the before-term elections. At certain moments in time, regularly and insistently, the "going back to the people" idea has been re-discussed. Moreover, the President also set the best time for this procedure: after the signing of the Adherence Treaty, which was to happen on the 25th of April 2005. After the signing of the Treaty, the moment of the beginning of the crisis becomes more and more obvious: the moment in which the Government takes full responsibility for the laws regarding the justice and the property.

LONELY. However, the President is the only one on this field. Except DP (the Democratic Party), the mother party, there was no other to ask for the before-term elections, not even the great loser of the Parliamentary elections, the SDP (Social-Democratic Party). Moreover, the Prime-Minister insistently says he is against the before-term elections. Traian Basescu’s will wasn’t enough, so Calin Popescu-Tariceanu had to be persuaded about the necessity of the before-term elections.

CONVINCED. The moment took place yesterday, after all this time in which Tariceanu had been against the idea of the before-term elections, at least in his statements. PM Tariceanu launched his latest opinion against this idea two nights before, when he came back from Greece. Then, he said "no" to the before-term elections for the last time. Yesterday, his "no" became "yes, before-term elections".

OPPOSITION IN THE COALITION. The idea of the before-term elections didn’t receive too much support from the parties, not even from the ones in the governmental coalition. One at a time, DUHR (the Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania), CP (the Conservatory Party) and even SDP said they were against this idea. GRP (the Great Romania Party) was the only one that said it was ready for a before-term poll, and that supported the idea, even if it was planned for 2007.

FIRMNESS. Things were clear for CP and DUHR from the beginning: even if the collaboration inside the coalition isn’t the best, they don’t want any before-term elections. Before the elections, there appear a lot of tendencies of separation inside the Hungarian community, which, together with the decrease of the Hungarians in Romania, can take DUHR outside the Parliament at any time. During a press conference at the Kensington University in London, analyst Ion Cristoiu asked Dan Voiculescu about CP’s support for a Government led by Theodor Stolojan, in case Basescu was putting out Prime-Minister Tariceanu. Voiculescu answered by reiterating CP’s position regarding their participation to the Government only for Romania’s interests. As for SDP, the party could not have wished for the before-term elections if the Alliance weren’t very low in the surveys. The former governing party passed through an internal reorganization period, which was emphasized by the great changes, which took place at the Congress at the end of April. At present, SDP is counting on the fact that the people don’t want the before-term elections and, this way, their organization could be approved by the poll.

ASSENT. The other party in the opposition, GRP, announced it was ready for a before-term poll and supported the idea, even if they would have preferred 2007 for that.